Kingdom Hearts Origins: Darkness
Kingdom Hearts Origins: Darkness is the sequel to Kingdom Hearts Origins: Light, and, like the previous games, chronicles the adventures of Claudere and Ultra in their struggle against the forces of Darkness. It offers a number of improvements over the previous game, although other than that the system remains the same. Most notable of the differences is the Reaction Commands which come back from Kingdom Hearts II. It is set to be released for the Playstation Vita and Playstation 3. The game is directed by Tetsuya Nomura and BandAid606. The theme song is "Sky Blue" performed by the BandAid606 band. Story Setting The story is set six months after Kingdom Hearts Origins: Light. Claude has been trapped in the Realm of Darkness all that time, and in the Realm of Light, Ultra desperately seeks to find a way to free him. Story After three months in the Realm of Darkness, Claudere's light was about to perish, until he was saved by a resident of the Realm of Darkness called Nox. Nox taught him how to survive in the Realm, and Claude learns to befriend and, to a greater extent, control the mysterious inhabitants of the realm, named Heartless. Although they were rendered extinct in the Realm of Light, they still thrive in their natural environment: Darkness. Meanwhile, Ultra and Mickey search for a way to enter the Realm of Darkness and rescue Claudere. They meet a strange woman who is able to traverse between the realms. She serves as their guide through the Realm of Darkness. The woman leads them to Claudere and Nox, but abandons them in the middle of nowhere. However, there was an alternative way to escape. Having two Keyblades, one of light and one of shadow, open the door to darkness. Claude and Ultra owned Keyblades of Light and Darkness respectively, so they could do this. They did so, and managed to escape, but before they could once again close the door, a strange group of people dressed in Anti-Black coats intervene and send the group flying through space. Claude and Nox end up seperated from Ultra and Mickey, waking up in seperate worlds. The two duos then set out on a journey to find not only each other, but also the strange group who stopped them from closing the door. They find out that they had left the door to darkness open because of this group, and therefore, the Vampires were quickly gaining strength. Upon meeting various members of the group, Claude, Nox, Ultra and Mickey discover that this strange group's members are like Vlad, whom they had defeated in their first journey. They are half Heartfelt half Phantom Vampires, or Hybrid Vampires, who were able to retain their human form because only half of their soul and half of their heart were taken away. Like Vlad, they had the power to control both types of Vampire, and it is revealed there are eight members in this 'Coven' and that each one controls one eighth of the Vampire population. Vlad was a former member, and former second-in-command, and by defeating him they had defeated only one eighth of the Vampire population. The Coven also has connections to Ultra's parents, and Claude's past. The only way to extinguish the Vampire threat for good was to destroy The Coven completely. This became the new goal of the foursome. Along their journey across many worlds, they find out that the Enigmatic Woman, Venetia, is the leader of The Coven, and the strongest of them all. Their intention was to practically strangle the information they were searching for out of the members of The Coven. By doing this, Ultra and Claude discover that they are linked in a way nobody could have forseen: Claudere was prophesized as the evil prince of darkness who would have to fight the Queen of Hearts. The Queen of Hearts was prophesized to be Ultra. Ultra finds out that Claude, prince of darkness, worked as one of the members of the Coven, but he was not a Vampire, he was their assassin. Their secret weapon. This is how he came to know Vlad, his former mentor, and the other members of The Coven, who recognized him immediately. They also find out that them leaving the Door to darkness open was The Coven's plan all along. They used Claude and Ultra so that their forces would become stronger. In the end, when the four re-unite, there is only Venetia left. She claims that even if she is destroyed, 'The Gatherer' will put an end to them. Although they have no idea what she means, they engage her in combat. Her strength proves to be equal, if not greater, to that of her former second-in-command, Vlad. However, she is defeated by Claude and Ultra's teamwork. In a final act, she attempts to take over Claude's body, whom she and Vlad seem to have a mysterious, dark connection to. However, Nox intervenes, and it is he who ends up getting possessed. Now, Claude and Ultra must defeat her in her final form: Venetia-Nox. They defeat her, but Nox ends up being lost to eternal darkness. He tells Claude that it is alright, that this is where he belongs, before both he and Venetia fade away. Finally, Claude and Ultra close the Door to Darkness once more, saving the worlds from darkness. However, the Vampires seem to remain. Claude and Ultra, although able to rest easy for now, know this is not over. Gameplay Kingdom Hearts Origins: Darkness's gameplay is almost identical to that of its prequel, Kingdom Hearts Origins: Light. However, the new inclusions involve Reaction Commands, the return of the Party System, and more. Scenarios Unlike the previous game, Kingdom Hearts Origins: Darkness features a scenario system like that of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts III, the player may choose a character at the beginning of the game. Each character has their own sets of available party members, and Command Decks exclusive to the specific character. In addition, the character can edit the Command Deck their partner uses, and the style of combat they take. Although this only works on the partner, and any additional party members (such as Hercules) come with their own Command Deck. While Ultra travels with Mickey as her partner, Claude travels with Nox. Abilities There is not much difference between the abilities in the first game, and the ones of this game. The most notable is that Shotlocks from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has been brought back. Through the main menu, the player may select a certain command deck, with pre-set commands. As the story progresses, the player gains access to more and more different Command Decks. They can either earn them as prizes for completing certain events, or buy them in the Moogle Shop. Some are only accessible through the shop, while others are only accessible through completion of events. In addition, some Command Decks are only available to one character. Players can also put any Command Deck that they are not currently using on their partner, who will level it up themselves the more they use it. Like in the first game, players may also bring Command Decks to the Moogle shop to have them melded, resulting in a single, stronger Command Deck. (EX. High Hitter + Raging Fire = Flaming Punch) The more a Command Deck levels up through use, the more the commands it contains are upgraded. For example, the High Hitter Command Deck contains various jumping-based commands. One of these is Quick Blitz, which is upgraded to Blitz when the deck is leveled up, this is upgraded further to High Blitz when the command levels up again, and then finally to Crash Blitz in the deck's final level. Combos The combo system recieved a great boon from the original game. Now, the combos don't count as abilities anymore, and there is a new menu specially for combos called the Combos menu. From here, a player can add a variety of hits to their combo. (Ex. Vertical Hit, Horizontal Hit, Uppercut) The combo hits selected are executed in the order selected while customizing the combo, the first one being marked with a one, the second one with a 2, and so on to signify which order they were selected in, and which order they would be executed in. However, since combo moves are now treated as their own item, they can be brought to the Moogle shop and be combined with a variety of crystals available during your journey to make even more advanced combo hits. Some are stronger versions of their predescessor,(Ex. Horizontal Hit + Power Crystal = Horizontal Smack) and others are elemental versions of their predescessor, (Uppercut + Wind Crystal = Sky Uppercut) while others change completely (Jab + Hard Crystal = Smackdown) Summons Summons come back in this game, and, although they work the same way they did in the previous game, a variety of new Summons have been added. Many are also obtainable by playing mini-games or finishing side-quests, and it is known that only half of the obtainable Summons in the game are obtained story-wise. They work as a mix between the D-Link system from Birth by Sleep and the Summon system from Kingdom Hearts II. The summon appears to the player in person, and changes the player's command deck, combo, and Shotlock. The commands, combo techniques, and Shotlocks used when a summon is present are only available when that summon is present. Reaction Commands Reaction commands re-appear from Kingdom Hearts II, which was the first and last time they appeared. They work almost identically to how they did then. Some Reaction Commands are triggered on certain enemies, but others are changed into Deck Commands. They are marked with a crown symbol, and when used, trigger a special move that relies on reaction commands. Another addition is the fact that the button must be pressed only when its symbol appears on the screen, if pressed before or after, the reaction command fails. This is to prevent players from continually pressing the button for ensured success, which, according to BandAid606, makes it way too easy. Worlds and Characters